Sara, commemorating Ludwig Berwald, 1883 – 1942.

Ludwig was my grandmother’s uncle. Born in 1883 in Prague to Jewish parents, he grew up speaking German and Czech. He was a curious and serious boy, with two siblings, a brother and a sister. His father Max owned a book shop. Ludwig studied mathematics at LMU University Munich, which is the same university I went to, and earned his PhD in 1908.

Health issues interrupted his career and in September 1915 he married Hedwig Adler, 8 years older than him and also from a Jewish family from Prague. They never had any children.

Back in Prague, Ludwig became a professor of mathematics at the University. A few years later, his existence was reduced to be Nr.816 on deportation transport C.

He was a reserved, artistic and musical person. Ludwig was tall, thin and wore glasses. His friends gathered in his study for tea and discussions, and Ludwig loved travelling, collecting photos, politics, history and he published 54 papers in differential geometry – the last one on the day before the deportation.

My great great uncle was one of the first to be dismissed from work in 1939 after the Nazi takeover. He tried to secure visas for himself and Hedwig to escape, writing to universities and colleagues in the UK, the US and other places. None of the efforts succeeded and Ludwig and Hedwig were deported from their Prague home to Lodz Ghetto on Oct 22, 1941. They could have avoided this deportation train with a medical certificate but chose not to.

In the ghetto, the conditions were unimaginable and Ludwig and Hedwig died from starvation within a few weeks of eachother, in spring 1942.

They never had a dignified burial, but their bodies were put in an un-known mass grave. That’s why I chose soil as something that is connected to Ludwig’s murder – him, Hedwig and members of our extended family are in unknown mass graves.

Sara.